Scott Hall, senior vice president of real estate and development for Hollywood Theaters, says the downtown cinema should bring an estimated 500,000 patrons annually. Hollywood Theaters is the anchor tenant at College Station, for which construction began Tuesday.

Dirt turns for College Station theater complex

Matt Wagner

Posted online August 6, 2007 | 11:00 pm

Golden shovels pierced dry, hot dirt Tuesday afternoon at the future site of College Station, signaling the start of construction on a 14-screen theater complex that will bring first-run movies to downtown Springfield.

Hollywood Theaters is College Station’s marquis tenant. The Oregon-based movie theater chain – the country’s eighth-largest – will occupy 48,000 square feet in the 135,000-square-foot mixed-use development being built on a city block bordered by Olive and College streets and Campbell and Market avenues.

Scott Hall, senior vice president of real estate and development for Hollywood Theaters, said the state-of-the-art cinema would feature high-back, reclining seats and digital surround sound. The theaters, each of which will seat between 125 and 300 patrons, are expected to open next summer, Hall said. An estimated 500,000 people will visit the theater complex annually, he said.

Springfield Mayor Tom Carlson said College Station is part of a long-term vision for downtown revitalization that encompasses Jordan Valley Park, Park Central Square and the West Meadows.

“It’s not always been an easy road – a lot of people didn’t understand the importance of infill development,” Carlson said. “People didn’t always appreciate what an asset we had here in the community.”

Lead developer Scott Tillman with Tillman Redevelopment LLC did not speak at the ceremony, but afterward said he’s still negotiating with restaurant and retail tenants interested in leasing 42,000 square feet of commercial space in the theater complex.

Of the four or five construction contractors who bid on the project, DeWitt & Associates submitted the low bid, said Tillman, who declined to disclose the contract amount. Tillman has previously said the theater complex would cost about $12 million.

DeWitt & Associates is also building the 393-space parking garage south of the theater complex that will be owned by the city. Tillman owns the parking deck’s ground floor – about 35,000 square feet that will be divvied up and leased to retail and/or restaurant tenants.

The $9 million garage is slated for completion late this year.

See SBJ’s Aug. 13 issue for more about the College Station project.[[In-content Ad]]